I'd really like to get into backcountry, and have recently been put in touch with a skier friend who does it all the time and can teach me a lot of the essentials. The trick is finding a setup that won't break the bank...

Anyways, I recently came across this and was looking for opinions from the more experienced as to whether this would be worth pulling the trigger on:

From the reviews that I've read, the board itself handles amazingly in powder. The biggest complaints have been the binding/transition system, which apparently has the potential to get snow/ice-packed rather easily. I was thinking that if it was that bad, I could always get a new interface system eventually.

I'm 5'7 145lbs without gear on as well, so I'm not sure if 164cm is a little too big for me.